Bush Hat

A bush hat is a soft wide-brimmed sun hat with a crown you can crush into a pocket, and this range is new production built around that shape rather than surplus stock. Sixty-odd hats from £14.95 to £44.95, almost all polyester, nylon or a poly-cotton blend, with a handful in pure cotton and one in straw. Treat it as sun and shade kit first, and read every listing for its own numbers.

Sizing is where most orders go wrong

Sizes are not consistent here, so the product page is the only figure worth trusting. Most of these hold on an internal drawcord as one size; some publish a head circumference, usually in the 52 to 61 cm range; a few use S to XL. Measure yourself once: run a tape around your head just above the ears and across the middle of the forehead, keep it level, and note the number. A couple of these run to the smaller end at 52 to 58 cm, and one poly-cotton hat runs large at 58 to 61 cm, so a big head is better served by the stated ranges than by a one-size drawcord.

Read the brim, and read it as shade

The brims here run from a 7 cm short brim up to a 15 cm parasol, and the choice is a real trade rather than more-is-better:

• A short brim (7 to 9 cm) shades the eyes and face, stays out of your view, and flaps less in wind.
• A wide brim (11 to 15 cm) shades the neck and shoulders too, and a soft wide brim lifts and flaps in a gust, so look for a chin cord or an adjustable strap on those.
• A long rear brim or a neck flap, on a few hats here, covers the neck that burns unnoticed while you face forward.

None of these carries a certified sun-protection rating, whatever a listing says about UV or UPF, so read the brim as shade rather than as a measured block, and cream the nose and ear tips a brim cannot reach.

What these hats will not do

None replaces a hood. Several are named or described as waterproof, and the honest reading is a water-repellent finish: it beads a passing shower and wets out in steady rain, and a soaked brim sags and dries slowly if the fabric is heavy cotton. Where a hat publishes no membrane and no water column, and none here does, treat the rain claim as shower resistance only. There is no waxed cotton and no leather in this range, whatever the old copy on this page used to say.

Keeping the shape

Hand wash cool, reshape the crown while it is damp and dry it flat, away from a radiator, because direct heat is what warps a brim for good. A straw hat is the exception: it will not pack, because straw creases and cracks when crushed, so keep that one for the garden rather than the rucksack. Where a hat has a mesh crown or a mosquito net, those add venting and insect cover a plain hat does not.

Free UK delivery and 30-day returns

All orders ship free to UK addresses, fully tracked. Orders are processed within 3 to 5 business days and delivered within 10 to 20 business days, which is 13 to 25 days in total, and that timeline is stated here rather than promised short and missed. Returns or exchange within 30 days of delivery, unworn and in original condition, approved before being sent back, with return postage paid by the customer and the refund issued within 7 days of return acceptance.